Kangaroo (Guugu Yimidhirr language: gang-oo-roo[1]), several species of large marsupial of the genus Macropus native to Australia and adjacent islands, characterized over-sized hind legs by which they use hopping to move about. The de facto symbol of Australia, kangaroos have been displayed on everything from the national coat of arms to coins, airline symbols, tourist advertisements, as well as numerous appearances in popular culture.

Description

Kangaroos have large ears on top of their small heads, a long snout, and short arms with clawed fingers. Their legs are strong, powerful, and are made for leaping. Their feet have four toes at the end of elongated metatarsi that they rest on when standing. They also have a powerful, thick tail that is used as support when standing, a third-leg when walking slowly, and for counterbalance while hopping. Like all marsupials, female kangaroos have a pouch on their stomachs in which they carry their young.

Diet

Kangaroos are herbivores, eating grass, roots, and shrubs. They have a chambered stomach similar to sheep and cattle. They are able to regurgitate their food, chew it again as cud, and then swallow it for digestion.

Social Order

Kangaroos travel in mobs of about ten or more males and females. The leader of the mob, called a "boomer", is a male determined by age and size. The boomer has access to females in his mob for mating and will wander around the mob intimidating any other males who try to mate with his harem.

Reproduction

Female kangaroos usually only have one baby kangaroo (called a "joey") at a time. The newborn joey weighs as little as 0.03 ounces when first born, after which it crawls into its mothers pouch where it will nurse, grow, and develop. Red Kangaroo joeys will stay in their mothers pouch for about eight months and Grey Kangaroo joeys stay in there for about one year.

Uses

Kangaroos are commonly hunted for their meat, with it being exported all over the globe. Kangaroo leather is commonly used in items such as football boots and driving booties.

Origins

Creation science and Creationism

Consistent with their view that the fossil record as a whole does not support the evolutionary position[2][3], creationists state that there is a lack of transitional fossils showing an evolutionary origin of kangaroos. Rebecca Driver writes:

The Macropod family is alleged to have evolved from either the Phalangeridae (possums) or Burramyidae (pygmy-possums)...However, there are no fossils of animals which appear to be intermediate between possums and kangaroos. Wabularoo naughtoni, supposed ancestor of all the macropods, was clearly a kangaroo (it greatly resembles the potoroos which dwell in Victoria’s forests). If modern kangaroos really did come from it, all this shows is the same as we see happening today, namely that kangaroos come from kangaroos, "after their kind." [4]

After the Flood, these kangaroos, bred from the Ark passengers and then migrated to Australia. There is debate whether this migration happened over land[5] with lower sea levels during the post-flood ice age, or before the super-continent of Pangea broke apart.[6].

Arguments and evidence relating to kangaroos that support a biblical creation model

Scientists and Christian apologists who advocate the biblical creation model have provided a number of pieces of evidence and arguments which support the creation model.

Some of the more notable articles supporting the biblical creation model are: